Mornington Peninsula

In true 100mph fashion we decided to give the tennis a rest and get out of Melbourne in an effort to show Paul and Lorna (both new to Australia) some wildlife and some countryside. We hired a car from a company who employed a crazy girl from LA

(here is the car)



and we splashed out the extra $10 to get a sat nav because there was somewhere we needed to go in Melbourne before we headed south that a Sat Nav would take us straight to - one of the best known Australian streets for people in the UK - Pin Oak Court.

Don't recognise it? Perhaps you will recognise it from the photos.




Yep, you guessed it - home of Harold, Madge, Mrs Mangel and Helen Daniels (not forgetting Bouncer) - Ramsay Street.

I must admit when I suggested the trip (Katie and I had been there before) I thought that Lorna and Paul wouldn't really enjoy it but they both loved it! (as you can see from the sheer excitement in the photos). In fairness, this street played a huge part in the teenage years of most people our age so it is quite something to finally stand there. (even the 2nd time) Paul was never a huge Neighbours fan but even he conceded that it was pretty cool to be standing where Kylie had once tread.

Once we had gotten over the excitement we reprogrammed the SatNav and headed for a beautiful part of Victoria - the Mornington Peninsula and in particular Phillip Island where we had some more beer and caught up with some of the local wildlife.

an unimpressed Koala (you shouldn't call him a bear by the way)


A Kookaburra





The main attraction down at Phillip Island though is the dusk penguin march - we weren't allowed to take any photos so here is a penguin photographed yesterday to give you an idea what we saw......



ok, so that's obviously not right so here is a photo I found on the net that gives you more of an idea - picture thousands of penguins running up the beach to go and meet their kids and regurgitate some smelly fish;



It was one heck of a trip and it was a quick one - just an overnight stay so we packed in an awful lot. It was back to Melbourne for our final night and there had been another surprise development in our plans. An old friend of mine who I last saw in 1996 had flown into Melbourne especially to say hi. Tanya now lives in Cairns and has two wee kids, she was asking for everyone back home and said she has such fond memories of her time in Glasgow - she really hasn't changed a bit.



So that as they say was that - our time in Melbourne was at an end. We all flew out the next day and the way things worked Paul actually flew into Wellington an hour before Katie and I got there. When we arrived we were all absolutely knackered and Paul and I only had two days to prepare for the ACDC concert (as part of the surprise Paul had also booked a concert ticket - I was already going!). So in true Brown brother style we went to the pub and came second in the pub quiz to a team of 16.